sizar
(ˈsaɪzə(r))
Also 6–9 sizer (7 cizer).
[f. size n.1 7 + -er2, -ar3.]
In the University of Cambridge, and at Trinity College, Dublin, an undergraduate member admitted under this designation and receiving an allowance from the college to enable him to study.
The name probably indicates that the person so admitted received his ‘sizes’ free. Formerly the sizar performed certain duties now discharged by college servants.
| α 1588 Burghley in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. III. 27 Under the pain of six shillings and eight pence for everye tyme that any..Fellow, Scholer, Pensioner, or Sizer shall offende in any of the foresaid Orders. 1638 Mede Wks. (1672) 835 My Sizer being not yet come with a candle, I will transcribe a passage of Eusebius. 1674 Blount Glossogr. (ed. 4) Sizer, is a Servitor or Attendant in our Universities. 1745 Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. (1861) II. 377 The dean said, if his parents would consent to his entering the college of Dublin as a sizer..he would take care he was treated with a particular regard. 1809 Byron Bards & Rev. (ed. 2) Postscr. There is a youth.., a sizer of Emanuel College. 1856 Lever Martins of Cro' M. vii, As he sauntered along the silent alleys of the College Park..some solitary sizer might be met with. |
| β 1670 Eachard Cont. Clergy 16 They took..heretofore a very good method to prevent sizars over heating their brains: bed-making, chamber-sweeping, and water-fetching. 1694 Motteux Rabelais iv. lxvii, Which..I had snatched up..as thievishly as any sizar of Montague college could have done. c 1780 in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) I. Introd. p. xcvi, My Father..entered me a Sizar. 1804 H. K. White Lett. I. 117 Somebody, perhaps, has been hinting that there are servile offices to be performed by sizars. It is a common opinion, but perfectly erroneous... The sizars at Cambridge only differ from the rest in name. 1868 Helps Realmah v. (1876) 83, I was a poor man, a sizar, and had to make my way in the world. 1902 Student's Hdbk. Cambridge v. 92 The emoluments of a Sizar take the form of various allowances, the annual value of which may be estimated at about {pstlg}40. |
| attrib. 1859 Farrar J. Home ix, I'll pay you and your sizar friend there for this, depend upon it. |